It is now upwards of two centuries and a quarter since the despotic sway of the English Sovereigns over the consciences of their subjects, induced all who entertained different sentiments from those of the established church, to turn their eyes towards the wilderness of America, as an asylum from the unnatural persecutions of the Mother Country.
With this in view, some of the principal men among those who had already sought a refuge in Holland, commenced treating with the Virginia Company, and at the same time took measures to ascertain whether the King would grant them liberty of conscience should they remove thither. They ultimately effected a satisfactory arrangement with the Company, but from James they could obtain no public recognition of religious liberty, but merely a promise, that if they behaved peaceably he would not molest them on account of their religious opinions.
On the 6th of September, 1620, a detachment from the Church at Leyden set sail from Plymouth for the Virginia territory, but owing to the treachery of the master,[2] they were landed at Cape Cod, and ultimately at Plymouth, on the 11th day of December following. Finding themselves without the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company, they established a distinct government for themselves.
In the year 1624, the success of this plantation was so favorably represented in the West of England, that the Rev. John White, a distinguished minister in Dorchester, prevailed upon some merchants and others to undertake another settlement in New England. Having provided a common stock, they sent over several persons to begin a plantation at Cape Ann, where they were joined by some disaffected individuals from the Plymouth settlement. This project was soon abandoned as unprofitable, and a portion of the settlers removed westward within the territory of Naumkeag, which then included what is now Manchester. By the intercession and great exertions of Mr. White, the project of a settlement in that quarter was not altogether relinquished, but a new company was soon afterwards formed. One of this company, and the principal one to carry its objects into immediate effect, was the subject of this Memoir. He was in the strictest sense of the word a Puritan,—one of a sect composed, as an able foreign writer has said, of the "most remarkable body of men which perhaps the world has ever produced. They were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not content with acknowledging in general terms an overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute. To know him, to serve him, to enjoy him, was with them the great end of existence. They rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted for the homage of the soul. On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt; for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language; nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand."
John Endecott, whose name is so intimately associated with the first settlement of this country, and with whose early history his own is so closely interwoven, that, in the language of the late Rev. Dr. Bentley,[3] "above all others he deserved the name of the Father of New England," was born in Dorchester, Dorsetshire, England, in the year 1588. He was a man of good intellectual endowments and mental culture, and of a fearless and independent spirit, which well fitted him for the various and trying duties he was destined to perform. Of his early life, and private and domestic character, little is known; neither are we much better informed as to his parentage, except that his family was of respectable standing and moderate fortunes. He belonged to that class in England called esquires, or gentlemen, composed mostly at that period of the independent landholders of the realm. With the exception, therefore, of a few leading incidents, we are reluctantly obliged to pass over nearly the whole period of Mr. Endecott's life, previous to his engaging in the enterprise for the settlement of New England. History is almost silent upon the subject, and the tradition of the family has been but imperfectly transmitted and preserved. His letters, the only written productions which are left us, furnish internal evidence that he was a man of liberal education and cultivated mind. There are proofs of his having been, at some period of his life, a surgeon;[4] yet, as he is always alluded to, in the earliest records of the Massachusetts Company, by the title of Captain, there can be no doubt whatever that at some time previous to his emigration to this country, he had held a commission in the army; and his subsequently passing through the several military grades to that of Sergeant Major-General of Massachusetts, justifies this conclusion, while the causes which led to this change in his profession cannot now be ascertained.
While a resident in London, he married a lady of an influential family, by the name of Anna Gouer, by whom, it is understood, he had no children. She was cousin to Matthew Cradock, the Governor of the Massachusetts Company in England. If tradition be correct, the circumstances which brought about this connection were similar to those which are related of John Alden and Miles Standish. Some needle-work, wrought by this lady, is still preserved in the Museum of the Salem East India Marine Society.[5] Mr. Endecott was also a brother-in-law of Roger Ludlow, Assistant and Deputy Governor of Massachusetts Colony, in the year 1634, and afterwards famous for the distinguished part he took in the government of Connecticut.
But Mr. Endecott's highest claim to distinction rests upon the fact that he was an intrepid and successful leader of the Pilgrims, and the earliest pioneer of the Massachusetts settlement under the Patent. His name is found enrolled among the very foremost of that noble band, the fathers and founders of New England—those pious and devout men, who, firm in the faith of the gospel, and trusting in God, went fearlessly forward in the daring enterprise, and hewed their homes and their altars out of the wild forest, where they could worship "the God of their fathers agreeably to the dictates of their own consciences." Such was the persecution to which the Non-conformists in England were at this period subjected, that the works of nature were the only safe witnesses of their devotions. Deriving no honor, so far as we know, from illustrious ancestry, Mr. Endecott was the architect of his own fame, and won the laurels which encircle his name amid sacrifices, sufferings, and trials, better suited to adorn an historical romance, than to accompany a plain tale of real life.
Under the guidance and influence of the Rev. Mr. Skelton, he embraced the principles of the Puritans; and in the beginning of the year 1628, associated himself with Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young, Simon Whetcomb, John Humphrey, and Thomas Southcoat, in the purchase of a grant, "by a considerable sum of money," for the settlement of the Massachusetts Bay, from the Plymouth Council in England. This grant was subsequently confirmed by Patent from Charles I. Mr. Endecott was one of the original patentees, and among the first of that company who emigrated to this country.